| 释义 |
▪ I. moment, n.|ˈməʊmənt|
Also 5 momentt, 6 momente; Sc. 6 mamunt, 9 mament.
[ad. L. mōmentum movement, moving power (hence, importance, consequence), moment of time, particle, f. mō-, movēre to move. Cf. F. moment (from 12th c.), Sp., Pg., It. momento, MHG. momente fem., moment of time, mod.G. moment masc. (from Fr.), moment of time, moment neut. (from Latin) momentum, decisive consideration, essential factor.]
1. a. A portion of time too brief for its duration to be taken into account; a point of time, an instant. Also in the same sense, † moment of an hour, moment of a minute (prob. originally used with reference to sense 2).
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5650 A moment of tyme es nan othir thyng, Bot a short space als of a eghe twynklyng. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1726 In that selue moment Palamon Is vnder Venus. 1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) I. 236 And than the same moment & tyme þt she had so doo Alcumena..began [etc.]. 1483Cath. Angl. 242/2 A Momentt, articulus, momentum, momentulum. 1526Tindale 1 Cor. xv. 52 We shall all be chaunged and that in a moment and in the twincklynge of an eye. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 201 In a moment of an houre, the Welshemen wer clene discomfited. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 33 When in that moment (so it came to passe) Tytania waked, and straightway lou'd an Asse. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. v. 300 In the verie selfe mamunt quhen thay war to Joyne battell, Bischope ffothadie..cumis betueine thame. 1627Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] xlix. (1628) 143 Wee are curdled to the fashion of a life, by time, and set successions; when all again is lost, and in the moment of a minute, gone. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xv. (1695) 103 Such a small part in Duration, may be called a Moment, and is the time of one Idea in our Minds, in the train of their ordinary Succession there. 1748Chesterfield Let. to Son 16 Feb., The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed... Every moment may be put to some use. a1774Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) II. 295 As the sun is every moment altering its situation, so is the landskip every moment varying its shade. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. iv. 125 The mind is often active even at the very moment of death. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola xxii, It seemed a long while to them—it was but a moment. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xvii. 78 Eadgar, the King of a moment. 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon II. 10 At this moment a servant entered.
† personified.1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xiii. 304 She remembreth how suddenly the Scene in the Masque was altered (almost before moment it self could take notice of it).
b. the moment: occas. in pregnant sense, the fitting moment, the momentary conjunction of circumstances that affords an opportunity.
1781Washington in Bancroft Hist. Const. (1882) I. 21 The moment should be improved; if suffered to pass away it may never return. 1865M. Arnold Ess. Crit. i. 5 The man is not enough without the moment.
c. Phrases. † at a moment: at a moment's notice; (at this) moment in time: now, the present instant; for a moment: (a) predicatively, destined to last but a moment; (b) adv., during a moment; not for a moment: emphatically not; for the moment: so far as the immediate future is concerned; also, temporarily during the brief space referred to; to have one's (or its) moments: to be impressive, etc., on occasions; to live for (or in) the moment: to live without concern for the future; of the moment: of importance at the time in question; esp. man of the moment; never a dull moment: a catch-phrase designating constant variety; one moment: elliptically for ‘wait one moment’, ‘listen for one moment’; on the spur of the moment: see spur; on, upon the moment (now rare): immediately, instantly; the moment: elliptically for ‘the moment when’ or ‘that’, as soon as ever; this moment: used advb. for (a) without a moment's delay, immediately; (b) just now, hardly a moment ago; to the moment: with exact punctuality; also, for the exact time required.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xviii. 51 b, The other..being kept & reserued as at a moment to succour & supply the instant necessities which might happen. 1607Shakes. Timon i. i. 79 All those which were his Fellowes but of late, Some better then his valew; on the moment Follow his strides. 1611Bible Prov. xii. 19 The lip of trueth shall bee established for euer; but a lying tongue is but for a moment. a1763Shenstone Ess. Wks. 1765 II. 206 The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. 1800Lamb Let. to Manning 13 Dec., I have received your letter this moment, not having been at the office. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop i, I rose to go:..‘One moment, Sir,’ he said. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus x. 3 She a lady, methought upon the moment, Of some quality. 1871Browning Pr. Hohenst. 28 Well, that's my mission, so I serve the world, Figure as man o' the moment. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. III. i. 24 A cook who could roast a joint..to the moment. 1878Tennyson Revenge ii, You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. 1889J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat ix. 85 There is never a dull moment in the boat while girls are towing it. 1890Spectator 18 Oct. 509/1 The political crisis in Portugal ended for the moment on Monday. 1926I. Mackay Blencarrow xxiii. 207 With the proper sort of company the situation might have had its moments. 1927Sat. Even. Post 9 Apr. 119 Even a mailman has his moments. 1932Weekend Rev. 14 May 617/1 There is never a dull moment. 1935E. Carr Jrnl. in Hundreds & Thousands (1966) 185 The three dogs lie on the bed,..trusting me to attend to their wants, living for the moment. 1935Discovery Aug. 220/1 Land utilisation is the problem of the moment. Ibid. 221/1 This is the need dictated by world economic conditions of the moment. 1936Punch 12 Aug. 170/2, I don't suggest for a moment that these are finished ideas. They are no more than artists' roughs. 1950L. Kaufman Jubel's Children xx. 223 Jubel says there's never a dull moment. 1963W. H. Missildine Your Inner Child of Past xii. 127 Because they ‘live in the moment’, they actually tend to be blindly unaware of the feelings of others. 1970O. Norton Dead on Prediction vii. 137 That's something I didn't know... You have your moments! 1972G. Bromley In Absence of Body iii. 30 What can we actually do to help at this moment in time? 1972‘T. Coe’ Don't lie to Me (1974) xxii. 169 Hargerson had his moments; happily this was one of them. 1972R. Adams Watership Down xx. 126 ‘No one hurt?’ ‘Oh, several have been hurt, one way and another.’ ‘Never a dull moment, really,’ said Bigwig. 1973Guardian 12 Mar. 11/2 The usual stuff about meaningful confrontations taking place..at this moment in time. 1974C. Egleton October Plot i. 11 There were five similar [flak] towers..but at this moment in time, they were only of passing interest. 1974V. Brome Day of Destruction xv. 153 Here's our man of the moment... Hail the conquering hero comes.
d. moment of truth: the time of the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight (Sp. el momento de la verdad); transf., a crisis or turning-point; a testing situation.
1932E. Hemingway Death in Afternoon vii. 68 The whole end of the bullfight was the final sword thrust, the actual encounter between the man and the animal, what the Spanish call the moment of truth. 1949New Statesman 15 Jan. 61/1 A good detective story should be like a good bull-fight... The author plunges the unexpected explanation into him like a sword—the moment of truth, as the Spaniards call it. 1954H. Casteel Running of Bulls v. 106 The Spanish call the kill the hora de la verdad (the hour (moment) of truth){ddd}this is still the climactic second to which the whole fight has been dedicated. 1956I. Bromige Enchanted Garden iii. iii. 140 This, thought Fiona, was the moment of truth. 1957‘D. Rutherford’ Long Echo viii. 150 This was his Moment of Truth, but there was no arena packed with spectators to give him vicarious courage. 1959Listener 6 Aug. 215/2 Now comes ‘the moment of truth’... The matador causes the bull to stand square..and plunges his sword between its shoulder⁓blades. 1965H. I. Ansoff Corporate Strategy (1968) i. 16 We shall have..very little [to say]..about the utility function applied at the ultimate ‘moment of truth’ in selecting the preferred alternative. 1972H. MacInnes Message From Malaga i. 9 You've become a self-centred bastard, he told himself... He blamed this moment of truth on the combination of guitar, scent of flowers, night sky.
†2. As the name of a definite measure of time.
a. In mediæval reckoning, the tenth part of a ‘point’ (see point n.1 A. 10), the fortieth or the fiftieth part of an hour.
b. With reference to Rabbinical modes of computation (repr. Heb. ˈḥēleq): see quot. 1625.
c. In the 17–18th c. occas. used for second. Obs.
a.1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. ix. (1495), And a day [contains] foure quadrantes. And a quadrant conteynyth syxe houres. And an houre foure poyntes. And a poynt .x. momentes. And a moment twelue vnces. And an vnce seuen and fourty attomos. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1078 Of atmos ben made the momentes, of momentes ben made the mynutes. 1621R. Brathwait Nat. Embassie 15 Who gouernes thee, point, moment, minute, houre.
b.1625T. Godwin Moses & Aaron iii. 155 Not before the ninth houre, and the 204. moment of an houre... Note in the last place, that 1080. moments make an houre.
c.1642H. More Song of Soul Notes 163/1, I understand,..by a moment one second of a minute. 1767Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 23 Aug., The Clock has three hands, one for the hours, one for the minutes, and a third for the moments.
d. Geol. [a. F. moment (proposed in this sense by E. Renevier 1882, in Congrès géol. internat.: Compt. Rend. de la 2me Session, 1881 540).] A period of geological time corresponding to a stratigraphical zone (as defined by its fossil content).
1933W. J. Arkell Jurassic Syst. Gr. Brit. i. 21 Strictly speaking,..‘moment’ should take priority over secule, and Diener adopts it, with the variations time-moment and zone-moment. 1958Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. LXIX. 113/2 At the Congress in Bologna in 1881..the only concrete suggestion came from the Swiss delegation (Renevier, 1882), which formally proposed ‘moment’ for the time equivalent of a zone. Ibid., The term ‘moment’ has priority, as was..recognized at an early date by Diener (1919). 1969Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles ii. 23 A zone is defined as strata deposited during an interval of time (known as a secule or moment, though these terms are not widely used) throughout which a particular faunal or floral assemblage existed.
†3.
a. A small particle. to the moment: to the smallest detail.
moment of a balance: lit. from the Vulg. momentum stateræ, which is a mere Hebraism, and therefore has not, as is sometimes supposed, any share in the sense-development of the Latin word.
1382Wyclif Isa. xl. 15 Lo! Ientiles as a drope of a boket, and as a moment of a balaunce ben holden. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xvii. (1636) 316 For to every severall place, yea to every little moment of the earth in an oblique Spheare, belongeth his proper Horizon. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 77 Examining therein every little moment of Art with such infatigable..care that it is easie to be perceived they do not acknowledg any greater pleasure. 1642H. More Song of Soul i. Ep. to Rdr. note, This opinion, though it have its moments of reason, yet [etc.]. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 23 One of the Scales may and will receive some moments of Advantage more than the other. 1754Richardson Grandison VI. xvi. 58 Be good, and write me every-thing how and about it; and write to the moment. You cannot be too minute.
†b. Math. An infinitesimal increment or decrement of a varying quantity. Obs.
[1704Newton De Quadratura Curvarum, Momenta id est incrementa momentanea synchrona.] 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., Moments are such indeterminate and uncertain Parts of Quantity, as are supposed to be in a perpetual Flux. 1743Emerson Fluxions 3 The Moments and Fluxions ought not to be confounded together, since the Moments..are as different from the Fluxions, as any Effect is different from its Cause.
4. Importance, ‘weight’. Now only in the adjectival phrase of (great, little, any, etc.) moment.
1522Clerk in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. I. 310 He said the kyngs Highnes lettres if they had comme in season shulde have been of no smale momente. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. ii. 5 What Townes of any moment, but we haue? 1617–18W. Lawson New Orchard i. (1623) 2 The Gardner had not need be an idle, or lazie Lubber, for so your Orchard being a matter of such moment, will not prosper. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §152 The Crown well knowing the moment of keeping Those the objects of reverence, and veneration with the People. 1709Tatler No. 67 ⁋11 A Matter of too great Moment for any one Person to determine. 1772Johnson in Boswell (1811) II. 203 The great moment of his authority makes it necessary to examine his position. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 90 Things which appear at first view of little moment. 1823Scott Peveril xxiii, The affairs of moment which have called me hither. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. §3. 290 He [Caxton] printed all the English poetry of any moment which was then in existence.
†5. Cause or motive of action; determining influence; determining argument or consideration.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. ii. 147, I haue seene her dye twenty times vppon farre poorer moment. 1611B. Jonson Catiline iv. v, Can these, or such, be any aydes to vs? Looke they, as they were built to shake the world, Or be a moment to our enterprise? 1627May Lucan v. 389 Thinke ye that such as ye Can any moment to my fortunes be? 1632Lithgow Trav. iii. 117 The diuine Maiestie doth swey the moments of things, and sorteth them..to strange and vnlooked for effects. 1663Jer. Taylor Funeral Serm. Bramhall 36 He so press'd the former arguments..and added so many moments and weights to his discourse, that [etc.]. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 59 This is a certain sign that we are not determined by the Moments of Truth,..but by some other By-Consideration and partial Inducement.
†6. Motion, movement. Obs.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. Wks. 1851 III. 97 All the moments and turnings of humane occasions are mov'd to and fro as upon the axle of discipline.
7. A definite stage, period, or turning-point in a course of events.
This sense now tends to be apprehended as an application of sense 1, ‘point of time’.
1666Sancroft Lex Ignea 6 A threefold Song [sc. Isa. xxiv–xxvii]..tun'd, and fitted to the three great Moments of the Event. The first, to the time of the Ruine itself... The second..fitted to a time of their Return... The third..belongs to the whole middle Interval. 1906C. Bigg Wayside Sk. p. v, These Lectures..might have been called Essays on the Development of the Church. They refer to three great moments in that fateful process—the making of the mediæval system, the decay of the mediæval system, and the beginnings of modern Christianity.
8. Mech.
†a. = momentum 4. Obs.
1706W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 282 Moment..is compounded of Velocity..and..Weight. 1727–52Chambers Cycle., Moment, Momentum, in mechanics, is the same with impetus.
b. Applied, with qualifying words, to certain functions serving as the measure of some mechanical effect the quantity of which depends on two different factors.
Thus the moment of a force or a velocity about a point is the product of the length of the directed line representing the force or the velocity, multiplied by the length of the perpendicular from the point. The moment of a couple is the product of either of the two equal forces into the length of the arm. The moment of inertia of a body about any axis is the sum of the products of the mass of each particle of the body into the square of its least distance from the axis. moment of momentum of a rotating body is the product of momentum into the distance from the axis.
1830Kater & Lardner Mech. x. 135 The moment of a force is therefore found by multiplying the force by its leverage. Ibid. 137 The product of the numerical expressions for the mass of the body and the square of the radius of gyration..has been called the moment of inertia. 1858Rankine Man. Appl. Mechanics 22 The moment of a couple means the product of the magnitude of its force by the length of its arm. Ibid. 308 This is called the bending moment or moment of flexure of the beam at the vertical section in question.
c. Physics. The distance between the two poles of a simple bar magnet, or the two charges of an electric dipole, multiplied by the strength of either of them (called more fully the magnetic moment and the electric moment, respectively); more widely, the maximum torque that any given system of poles, or charges, can experience in a uniform magnetic, or electric, field (respectively) of unit strength; more fully called (magnetic or electric) dipole moment. Similarly the moment of order 2 (quadrupole moment) is a certain tensor of rank 2, whose components are quadratic functions of the spatial co-ordinates of the poles or charges; so octupole moment (moment of order 3), etc. Cf. multipole n.
1865Phil. Mag. XXIX. 441 The product of the strength of the poles into the length between them is called the magnetic moment of the magnet. 1884J. T. Sprague Electricity (ed. 2) iii. 110 The magnetic moment of any uniformly magnetized substance is proportional to its volume. 1892O. Lodge Mod. Views Electricity 445 A circuit conveying a current exactly imitates a magnet of definite moment, the equivalent moment being..µnAC where A is the mean area of the coil, n the number of turns of wire, C the current, and µ a constant characteristic of the medium inside the coil. 1903S. J. Barnett Elements of Electromagnetic Theory xi. 282 The quantity M = mL = T/H sin θ is called the magnetic moment of the magnet (analogous to the electric moment of an electret). 1916, etc. [see multipole n.]. 1920Chem. Abstr. XIV. 3014 Assuming the mol. to be a dipole it is possible to obtain the distance between the 2 charges from the moment of inertia and from this in turn to calc. the elec. moment by application of the quantum theory. 1934Physical Rev. XLV. 761/1 We derived the magnetic moment of the deuton in the same way as the magnetic moment of the proton. 1942J. D. Stranathan ‘Particles’ of Mod. Physics x. 401 The magnetic moment of a neutron must be regarded as a fundamental property of the particle. 1953Sci. News XXX. 7 The magnetization [of a piece of iron] is the magnetic moment per unit volume, or the pole strength per unit cross-sectional area. 1958Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics iv. ii. 19/2 A quadrupole term is related to the second-order moments of the charge distribution... (Various slightly different definitions of the quadrupole moment are to be found in the literature.) Ibid. 20/1 The spherical-harmonic addition theorem..permits the writing of Vκ(R) in the form Vκ(R) = 1 / Rκ+1 {Summ}+κm = -κQκmFκm(θ)e-imϕ where the 2κ-pole moment is fully described by the 2k + 1 quantities, Qκm = 4π / 2k + 1 ∫ρ(r)Fκm(θ)eimϕdv. 1962Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields & Waves v. 210 We set m = IS as the dipole moment of the current loop, where S is a vector whose magnitude is equal to the area of the loop. It is perpendicular to the loop. Ibid., It is possible to generalize the concept of magnetic dipole moment to any distribution of current in space... For a current distribution J in a volume τ, m = ..½∫r × Jdτ. 1970G. K. Woodgate Elem. Atomic Struct. ix. 177 In order to be able to discuss departures of the nuclear charge distribution from spherical symmetry we should like to attribute to the nucleus electric multipole moments. Ibid. 180 The quadrupole moment Q is positive if the nuclear charge distribution is elongated along the direction of I [sc. the nuclear spin] (prolate) and negative if the distribution is flattened (oblate).
d. Statistics. Each of a series of quantities (first, second, etc., moment) that express the average or expected value of the first, second, etc., powers of the deviation of each component of a frequency distribution from some given value, usu. the mean (giving a central moment) or zero.
1893K. Pearson in Nature 26 Oct. 615/2 Now the centre of gravity of the observation curve is found at once, also its area and its first four moments by easy calculation. 1925R. A. Fisher Statistical Methods for Research Workers iii. 70 The standard error of the variance is √[(µ4 - µ22)/N], where N is the number of samples, and µ2 and µ4 are the second and fourth moments of the theoretical distribution. 1938A. E. Waugh Elem. Statistical Method vi. 114 The formula for the first moment about the mean involves σx and..it reduces to zero, since σx = 0. We can thus say some things about the moments of all curves in advance: (1) v0 = 1, (2) v1 = 0, (3) v2 = σ2. Ibid., In any symmetrical curve the odd moments, being based on the sums of odd powers of deviations, will equal zero. 1959G. & R. C. James Math. Dict. 257/2 µr = ∫-∞∞(x - a)rf(x)dx is the rth moment of x around the point a, where x is a random variable with frequency function f(x). 1961D. V. Huntsberger Elem. Statistical Inference v. 102 The first moment about the origin is the mean µ of the theoretical distribution... The variance σ2 of a random variable Y is defined as the second moment about the mean, the average value of (Y - µ)2.
9. One of the elements of a complex conceptual entity. (After Ger. use.) Cf. momentum 5.
1863J. G. Murphy Comm. Gen. xxv. 1–11 These are all moments, potent elements in the memory of man, foundation-stones of his history and philosophy. a1864Ferrier Grk. Philos. (1866) I. v. 125 Being and not-Being are the elements or moments of Becoming. 1869Jrnl. Specul. Philos. III. 351 The moments of the Comprehension are Universality, Particularity, and Individuality. 1879J. Veitch tr. Descartes' Method (1880) Introd. 79 It is a complete mistake historically to assume that the moment of Cartesianism is consciousness. 1906E. F. Scott 4th Gospel iii. 96 The ethical moment is thus markedly absent.
10. attrib. and Comb., as † moment-space; moment-lived, moment-living adjs.; moment-axis Physics, a line indicating by its length and direction respectively the moment and the direction of a couple; † moment-hand, the seconds-hand of a time-piece; moment-to-moment attrib. phr., of an immediate requirement, necessity, etc.
1865Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc. I. 575 Such a line is called the *moment-axis of the couple.
1809T. Donaldson Poems 67 On Seeing a Clock; the hour and *moment-hands of which were going in contrary directions. 1833Lamb To Moxon 24 July, Life, etc. (1876) I. 143 She takes it [sc. her watch] out every moment to look at the moment-hand.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 404 All mans Creations (his Actions) are vanity; (but what he doth for his Creatour) and his Creatures, (the Effects of those Actions) but Abortives, or *moment-lived.
1826W. Elliott Nun 20 *Moment-living flowers that blow, Full of fragrance, soon to perish.
1508Dunbar Goldyn Targe 210 Than was I woundit to the deth wele nere, And yoldyn as a wofull prisonnere To lady Beautee, in a *moment space.
1934T. S. Eliot Elizabethan Essays 8 Contemporary literature, like contemporary politics, is confused by the *moment-to-moment struggle for existence. 1957A. Miller Coll. Plays (1958) Introd. 23 It wanted..a kind of moment-to-moment wildness in addition to its organic wholeness.
Sense 1 d in Dict. becomes 1 e. Add: [1.] d. A (usu. brief) period of time characterized by the particular quality of the experience contained in it rather than by its duration.
1872'G. Eliot' Middlemarch II. iv. xlii. 370 Here was a man who now for the first time found himself looking into the eyes of death—who was passing through one of those rare moments of experience when we feel the truth of a commonplace. 1907G. B. Shaw John Bull's Other Island i. 19 Why do you select my most tragic moments for your most irresistible strokes of humor? 1931A. Uttley Country Child xii. 146 She awoke later and lay holding her happiness, enjoying the moment. 1960W. Percy Moviegoer iv. ii. 176 There is very little sin in the depths of the malaise. The highest moment of a malaisian's life can be that moment when he manages to sin like a proper human. 1995Observer 5 Feb. (Life Suppl.) 29/1 He recently met Muhammad Ali in LA... ‘He didn't know who I was. I told him: ‘You're my hero and you changed my life.’ And he said: ‘Now you are all grown up.’ Then he pulled my head down and pressed his cheek next to mine. That was a moment.’
▪ II. † moment, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. moment n.]
trans. To determine to the moment the time or occurrence of; to time precisely.
a1661Fuller Worthies, Suffolk (1662) iii. 62 All Accidents are minuted and momented by Divine Providence. |